today. there's lots more ahead. "cnn newsroom" continues right now with ashleigh banfield, hey, ashlei ashleigh. >> hi, deb. thank so much, everyone. nice to see you. 11:00 on the east coast, 8:00 a.m. on the west coast. let's start here. big news, the white house putting an offer out there on the table, a plan to avoid the fiscal cliff and break the stalemate. the treasury secretary tim geithner himself making the rounds on capitol hill, presenting the details. last night, in fact, even. in the suvs returning to the white house after his meetings with congressional leaders, the press is there. that's an important meeting, folks, the democrats are emphasizing. this, however, is only a first offer. >>> so, with that how was it received? it was received with a cacophony of laughter, essentially. the republicans hated it. there's really no other way to say it. they stopped at the request for $1.6 trillion in new tax revenue, which probably gives us a bit more context to house speaker john boehner's response to all of this yesterday. >> no substantive progress has been made in the